For the last several years, Jrue Holiday has been the guy who you trade for to win a championship. He has been a winner throughout his entire career, and now, the Spurs might have a player just like him on their roster. The best part is the Spurs drafted Stephon Castle in the 2024 draft, and he is proving his value in his rookie season. Crucially, they now have him for a cheap price for the foreseeable future. Fans around the league might not have heard of him, but his name will become popular sooner rather than later.
The Spurs Have Found Their Jrue Holiday: Stephon Castle
On the last episode of the Hoop Collective, the hosts talked about how the Spurs have been much better this season. Some of the reasons are they got veterans like Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes, but they also struck gold with their latest draft pick. ESPN reporter Tim MacMahon is among the latest people to praise Stephon. He said,
“We’re going to learn how to say this guy’s name because he’s a really, really good player and you can’t necessarily always see it looking at the box score. He has had some good shooting nights lately, but his shooting numbers overall are not good. He is a winner, a national champion at UConn, and a hell of a defensive player. We’ll see how good of a scorer he becomes, but he impacts winning as a defender. He reminds me a lot of Jrue Holiday when you talk about all those things that Jrue does that impact winning. He’s got a chance to be a pretty dynamite two-way player.”
Later on, MacMahon talked about how Spurs coaches value Castle and praise him. He mentioned an interview with Spurs coach Mitch Johnson, in which Johnson praised Castle’s demeanor and spectacular defensive plays. MacMahon said,
“He’s stone-faced also like Jrue Holiday and when something goes wrong, he doesn’t get rattled and he is a really impressive rookie.”
Castle and Wemby – Defensive Duo of the Future
Stephon is playing another impactful player on the defensive end, Victor Wembanyama. Last year, the Spurs were 21st in defensive rating. This year, as of November 26th, they are 9th in defensive rating. They allow 110.6 points per 100 possessions. Of course, Stephon is not the only one responsible for such a jump, but he and Victor have a chance to be a special defensive duo. Impressively, Wemby and Castle post a 104.8 defensive rating when they are on the court together.
At just 20 years of age, Castle is playing defensive chess with opponents, asserting himself as the best perimeter defender of his rookie class. Wemby is the backline guy, and Castle is the point-of-attack guy. Teams around the league will have to get used to that. The interesting part is that the Spurs can improve their defense even more. For example, they are allowing 15.4 second-chance points, which puts them at 25th spot in the league. With Victor in the paint, that shouldn’t be the case. They are also 20th in allowed fast break points, another area they can improve thanks to Castle.
What About his Scoring?
For the season, Castle has been averaging 10.9 points on 39.4% shooting from the floor. But his slow scoring start is a reason for that when he averaged only 5.2 points on 28.9% shooting over the first six games. Over the last nine games, however, he is averaging 15.3 points and 5.0 assists on 44% shooting from the floor. Rookies often have up-and-down periods when it comes to shooting, but Stephon can hang his hat on defense.
Is the Jrue Holiday Comparison Real?
When Jrue came into the league in 2009, teams were not shooting as many threes as they are today. Even then, Holiday was an amazing defender for his position, and similar to Castle, not a great scorer. During his rookie season, Jrue averaged only 8 points on 44% shooting. Yet, he also averaged 1.1 steals and 2.6 rebounds and was a pesky defender.
Stephon might not end up being Jrue Holiday, but the Spurs are known for finding and developing these pesky and gritty players. After all, they had Bruce Bowen and Stephen Jackson on their roster.
